Steemit Crypto Academy [Beginners’ Level] | Season 3 Week 2 HOMEWORK POST| The Genesis Block: The Beginning of the Beginning

Hello steem world

Nice to be part of this week's lecture by prof @awesononso on The Genesis Block, it has really exposed me to the beginning of blockchain mining and given me an insight on Steemit Genesis Block. Below is my homework task.

Question 1: What is the genesis block of a blockchain?

The word 'Genesis' simply means First, Beginning or Origin of something, therefore, Genesis block of a blockchain is referred to as the origin of all other blockchains. It is the first block on a blockchain that serves as the foundation or template for building blocks in a blockchain. The genesis block is best described as "block 0" in which additional blocks are added to it to build a blockchain until the blockchain grows to a particular height and the sequence is completed. Rewards gotten from a genesis block in a blockchain is usually not withdrawable as it it in other blockchains.

It is the first-ever hashed block of a particular blockchain, which is completely unique as the origin of other blockchains, and different from other blocks in terms of data or information it contains. When a new block is mined on a blockchain it is usually referenced to a previous and existing block, but the genesis block is the only block that is completely unique and is not referenced to any existing or previous blockchain.

Each blockchain consists of a series of many blocks, used in storage of informations related to transactions that occurs on a blockchain network. With each of the blocks having unique header, and each of these blocks are dentified by its block header hash. The genesis block is the foundation of other blocks in Bitcoin blockchain, it is better known as the Prototype of other blocks in Bitcoin blockchain. The numbering of the blocks in a blockchain is known as Block Height Number.

It is believed that genesis block is mysterious, as the original inventir of genesis block still remains a mystery. Although "Satoshi Nakamoto" is speculated the developer of the Genesis Block and founder of Bitcoin, but shortly after the launch of Bitcoin, there have been no trace of Satoshi Nakamoto".

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Question 2: Write on the Bitcoin Genesis Block and its significance.

Source

The first block of the Bitcoin blockchain is referred to as Genesis Block also known as Block 0. Genesis Block is the prototype of every other bitcoin block, as every other blocks were built on it as the previous block and can be referenced back to the block 0. After the mining of first block of Bitcoin, it took another six days for the mining process of the next block(block 1) in a blockchain to be completed, this was more and the usual average time of 10mins for a mining process to be completed. Each blocks gets it hash from the previous hash of a block in the blockchain.

The first Bitcoin Genesis block was mined by Nakamoto mined with a CPU(as opposed to the current modernized graphics cards miners now need in mining blocks). The mining of the Bitcoin was more like an experiment , as it still took a year before it became known in the world, as such there was no competition in the mining process as no one knew about it's existence at that time and it was not worth any reward in terms of Fiat currency.

The Bitcoin Genesis Block is the most integral part of all cryptocurrency blocks, as it is the foundation on which every other cryptocurrency block was built on and can be linked back. The original genesis block had 50BTC as at the time it was first created. The Bitcoin block(block 0 ) was the first block to be mined after which every other additional block has been added to it.

The genesis block was mined on the day a news article was released with a header inscription of ‘’Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks’’ which was the same coded words that the Bitcoin founder had encrypted on the Coinbase transaction of the Genesis Block. However, there is a general conceived hypothesis to explain this occurrence, as it is believed that the headlines released in the news(the economic crisis in 2008) inspired Satoshi Nakamoto to make Bitcoin known to the public as he believed it was a solution to the economic crisis and hence the inscription “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks”.

Source

The Bitcoin genesis block has a Merkle root hash which is; 4a5e1e4baab89f3a32518a88c31bc87f618f76673e2cc77ab2127b7afdeda33b

And the Hash as; 000000000019d6689c085ae165831e934ff763ae46a2a6c172b3f1b60a8ce26f

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SIGNIFICANCE OF BITCOIN GENESIS BLOCK

•The significance of the creation of Bitcoin Genesis Block by Satoshi is that, the Block was invented with the intention of solving the economic crisis as at 2008. Satoshi created bitcoin as a better way for people to have trust during transactions and be able to store wealth that is secured cryptographically without the interference of governments. Hence Bitcoin came into limelight as a decentralized platform that gives trust to user's and is free from any third-party influence. This is because Satoshi believed there was a breach of trust with fiat currencies.

"The root problem with conventional currency is all the trust that’s required to make it work. The central bank must be trusted not to debase the currency, but the history of fiat currencies is full of breaches of that trust."
– S.Nakamoto

• Also the creation of Bitcoin Genesis Block created a platform for other cryptocurrencies to come into existence, as there over 10,000 cryptocurrencies currently. All thanks to the bold step of Satoshi Nakamoto. The concept of Bitcoin Genesis Block has made it possible for the use of coins to be globally to help meet the needs of different individuals provide solutions to different problems

• After the mining of the first Bitcoin, it's success has made cryptocurrency technology more known and used in the world today, as everybody is walking the path of digital currencies usage in making transactions globally.

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3. Go to https://steemworld.org and locate the Steem Genesis Block (You must provide screenshots and sign in as proof of completion).

Step 1: First search for https://steemworld.org on the browser, it takes you to the homepage. On the homepage you will see different tools of Steem Blockchain, click on 'Block explorer ' to locate the
Steem Genesis Block.

Step 2: It takes you to the next page, now to get the first block on steem I fill in '1' and press OK. It now shows the details of Steem Genesis Block (as seen on the screenshots below).

Step 3: At the top-right of the page you click on sigin in and fill in your steemit account name and private posting key, then click on OK.

Step 4: At the top-right you would see your username showing, you have successfully signed into SteemWorld(as seen on the screenshots below).

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CONCLUSION

The Genesis Block is the prototype to other blocks in a blockchain. Bitcoin Genesis Block is an integral aspect of the mining of cryptocurrencies in the world today, all thanks to Satoshi Nakamoto, who developed it to help solve the problem of financial crisis in the society.

Indeed Genesis Block is the beginning of the beginning as it as layer the foundation for the mining of other blocks. After this lesson have been able to see the Genesis Block of Steemit which was one of the highlights for me as a Steemian.

Thank you professor @awesononso for an interesting and informative lecture, looking forward to another amazing lecture.